Mercruiser 1.7 DTI Turbocharger Source?

[Daibheid]

Can anyone recommend a supplier of new or reconditioned turbochargers for this engine please?
The turbo boosts just fine but the wastegate is sticking and we all know what that leads to......
Thanks!

[beamishken]

Can't you get an engineering company to spark erode the old shaft out and make a replacement? If I remember correctly those turbos are about £1400

[jwalker]

Google Turbo Dynamics, I've dealt with them a couple of times and they've been very helpful and considerably less cost than OEM. A turbo number off its data plate is always a good thing.

[Daibheid]

Thanks for the comments. The old turbo won't open up. It came out as a ball of rust from the expensive heat shield that keeps moist salt air close to heated cast iron and won't yield to a torch so it may be a long haul!
Turbo Dynamics priced a quotation for a turbo promptly and it's ex-stock.
I'm probably going to replace the core on mine when/ifI get it open and the wastegate freed.

I've enquiries out to multiple other suppliers and I'll post up who can supply at reasonable prices when I round a few up. If the gas torch and diesel doesn't get mine open by mid season, I'll be replacing it.

Btw if anyone can suggest a lube for the wastegate that will work at those temps that's available in Europe.......I drowned mine in WD40 after every use and it still seized up over the winter.
Even better if there any suggestion to inhibit rust on the turbo body which contributed to the seizing by rusting on to the wastegate arm.

[beamishken]

The last one I messed with I wrapped with exhaust heat wrap instead of the v expensive heat shield this allowed me to leave the crucial bits uncovered
I had one stuck waste gate and managed to free it and once freed it was a pretty sloppy fit it was hard to understand how it actually seized in the first place .
I have heard of others so stuck the operating lever snapped off before the thing freed off and the guy couldn't drill it for some reason .I assumed that's where you were initially hence my suggestion to get it spark eroded out
Its a known fault for engine manufacturers to use air cooled turbos in a marine engine but they were obviously built to a price
Best of luck with it

[Daibheid]

Just to add some further experience on this turbo in case anyone else might benefit.

I replaced the turbo last year with a reconditioned one as the old one just could not be dismantled - even with the big blue spanner- and the wastegate would not free up.

Best practice appeared to be to regularly lubricate the wastegate but it's hard to find something to work at Turbo temperatures. The best solution appeared to be Mouse Milk but I could not get a European source for it as the two official distributors didn't respond to requests to buy a single bottle. So I used a Teflon high temperature aerosol religiously after the engine cooled each trip. The wastegate still seized up by the end of the season - in retrospect possibly because I tended to cruise at 3- 3,500 and therefore unlikely to exercise the wastegate a lot.

So the replacement turbo is going to have to come out as I want a wastegate I can trust so not satisfied just to free it up. So I'm going to look at extracting the wastegate shaft and getting a Stainless Steel bushing made up for the shaft. I'm open to material and clearance suggestions but my research says SS is what BMW turbos use to bush Turbo wastegates and although not operating in a marine environment, they're reliable (generally).

[beamishken]

The easy way to exercise it is remove the two bolts holding the actuator then the wastegate should be quite floppy
I'm not sure I'd go with stainless as it's prone to galing and siezing
Personally I'd remove the shaft and open the existing bushes up with an adjustable reamer to quite a loose fit as small leaks from here are pretty irrelevant

[Daibheid]

Originally Posted by beamishken

The easy way to exercise it is remove the two bolts holding the actuator then the wastegate should be quite floppy
I'm not sure I'd go with stainless as it's prone to galing and siezing
Personally I'd remove the shaft and open the existing bushes up with an adjustable reamer to quite a loose fit as small leaks from here are pretty irrelevant

100% agree that more clearance is a must and any minor leaking fumes will be swallowed by the engine anyway. I found you can also manually excercise the wastegate using a vice grips on the actuator arm. Those two bolts are not the most accessible even when not in the water ,at least in my installation.